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Erdur
Origin There was a man who said that chaos is a ladder and the Erdur would have believed him. After the initial defeat of Melkor, his armies were in chaos, their leader defeated, them being slaughtered by the hundreds and their strongholds collapsing and from this chaos rose the Eldar. But at that time they did not yet bear that name. In those dark times they were elves who managed to retain their elven aspect, no matter how hard the torture. Their refusal to become orks angered Melkor greatly and so he cast upon them the greatest tortures his wicked mind could imagine and imprisoned them in the second depth of utumno, and yet they persevered, though not without scars that wouldn't fade for generations after their tortures. The news of the defeat of the dark lord came suddendly and without warning, so suddenly that there was a distinctive lack of security around their prison in utumno. The slaves saw the chance and took it. The escape from the second depth was a gruesome task for the elves, the unimaginable cold, hordes of orks and a balrog fleeing into the third depth were challenges this group had to face, but they had come this far and they would not be denied their freedom. In the end, through stealth and some luck they managed to make their way far out into the frozen desert of Forodwaith where the forces of darkness could not reach them. Wary of being found they fled to the most northern part of forodwaith they could find, feeding themselves on the meat of some lonely orks they found. When they finally made it there their once 10 000 strong group had been dwindeled by the cold and the orks to only 430 elves and as salt to the wound their troubles had not yet ended. After three weeks of settlements another problem reared its ugly head at the elves. Winter in forodwaith was starting, a time when the sun would barely shine upon the wastes and the temperature dropped so cold that one would die if not wearing three layers of war fur at all times. The elves searched and searched for a solution and all seemed lost until a miracle happened, their only mage and his apprentice found the wierwood, a strange tree which radiated warmth around it and allowed a small forest to grow near it. The elves rejoiced but they did so too early. Even the wierwood could not beat away the winter of Forodwaith, for the trees as they found out were frozen to ice. In a desperate to fix this problem their wizard, Yriel sacrificed his soul to try and strengthen the tree and save his people. Now, souls were not common knowledge in middle earth and few knew how they worked. But those who did knew that not all creatures shared the same type of soul. The lowliest soul was a plants soul and the highest was that of an Elf. So when an Elf, whose soul had the most raw power and a tree, a being that had a soul so weak that they could rarely develop sentience fused their souls together it became too much for the tree so it split into half, its colours faded and it became as solid as stone. The elves wept for their fellow elves and thought that all was over for them. However when they all woke up the next day, they noticed something strange, the trees around the split wierwood were losing their ice and and some creatures had come to it for shelter against the approaching winter. It turned out that Yriels sacrifice had not been in vain and the trees effects were stronger than ever, in addition the lingering magic from utumno caused small chunks of naurite to grow around the tree. It tunred out that while the tree couldn't inherit Yriels sentience fully it inherited his desire to protect the elves and so it grew from its fastly expanding roots sapling of rock and stone for the eldar to use for their homes and attracted animals into its forest for the elves to hunt. In some years a spirit would be born of wierwood. From that point on the elves called themselves Eldar, in their warped speech it meant lone rulers, to symbolize that they alone ruled their fate. It came from the elvish word er and the orkish word durb in their speech however it sounded like Eldar when pronounced. Now Since their humble beginnings the Eldar rule the east of Forodwaith, and are expanding west, building tall cities of stone from the trees of Yriel throughout the frozen wastes. Having such a vast kingdom they have finally decided to abandon their isolationists policies in the third age and sent scouts southwards where they discovered dorwinion, surprised that any other Elves had survived they quickly brought this news back to their closest outpost and in three days time the whole kingdom knew of this. The grand magus quickly sent a diplomatic entourage down to Dorwinion where they would try to make an ally out of it. Despite their mangled speech the people of Dorwinion managed to understand them and welcomed them with open arms as a trade partner. In time Dorwinion became their main ally beside the other elven races they found. They also allied themselves with the dwarfs since they saw dwarfs as capable craftsmen and the dwarfs saw them as elves without sticks up their asses. Now, throughout the cities of the Erdur one can find a multitude of races living in relative harmony. Enemies Their main enemies are the Angmar orcs, Dol guldur orcs and the Gundabad orcs. Government The Eldar are ruled by a grand magus who is chosen by the spirit of the wierwood in their capital. Their current grand wizard is called Eldrad. Notable Rulers Yriel Yriel was the elv who led the Erdur out of Utumno and ensured that they could survive. He is higly respected by all Erdur and is worshipped by some. Leanel the despoiler By far the most savage of the Erdur rulers, he was elected by the wierwood in a time when the Erdur kingdom was small and their armies weak, constantly being raided by orks. Leanel led the(as of now) Greatest crusade in Erdur history and slaughtered the orks by the thousands. However he was killed in one of his raids, by a posion dagger to the hearth. Capital Their capital is located on an island far north in Forodwaith, both the island and the city are called Biel-tan. Army Most of their forces are made out of Elves but they have also a small minority of Dwarves. =